Carol Coletta says the waterfront is Jacksonville’s most important asset – one the city should do a better job of using to promote the quality of life and community connectivity.
“You’re growing. You want that growth but you also want to preserve what really is Jacksonville and lift that up,” she said.
Since 2017, Coletta has served as president and CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, a public-private partnership responsible for 5 miles of public property along the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. In September 2023, the city of Memphis and the partnership celebrated the opening of the transformed 31-acre Tom Lee Park along the Mississippi.
Coletta was vice president of Community and National Initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation where she managed a portfolio of more than $60 million in grants for journalism, communities and the arts. She also led the startup ArtPlace, a public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking.
Planetizen, a planning-related news website, named her one of the top 100 Most Influential Urbanists, past or present.
Coletta spoke at Scenic Jacksonville’s fifth annual Great Cities Symposium on Feb. 6 at Garden Club of Jacksonville. The event invites speakers to inform and educate civic leaders and advocates through discussions on the successes and challenges of peer cities. She was introduced by Mayor Donna Deegan.
“You have a lot to protect and promote in this city,” she said. “You’ve got a lot of waterfront and lucky you because that’s the gift that you didn’t have to earn. You didn’t have to buy it. You didn’t have to go out and beg someone to bring it to Jacksonville. It is yours.
“You have so much to work with.”
Despite this potential, Coletta said the city can do a better job of leveraging the waterfront to attract and engage residents.
“I’m not sure your waterfront is always as inviting, accessible and connected as it can be — as it ought to be — particularly in the heart of the city adjacent to Downtown,” she said. “But let me reassure you, you are not alone.”
Coletta said other cities across the country, including Memphis, and around the world, have struggled—and continue to struggle — to incorporate their waterfronts into their identities.
“Sometimes waterfronts are uninviting, inaccessible and disconnected because we ignore their potential,” she said. “Sometimes it’s because too much of it is privately owned and you can’t connect it all, join it up — which is where it really gets its great X-power.
Coletta said cities have historically used the waterfront for industry, leading to pollution, while others have impediments to access, including bluffs, highways and railroad tracks.
“We have all three,” Coletta said of Jacksonville.
Big developments like stadiums and convention centers also can be barriers between residents and the waterfront, she said.
“Fortunately we’re all getting smarter about this and it’s all finally changing,” Coletta said. “It’s taken us a while across the globe. Leaders and concerned citizens like you are reclaiming waterfronts for people.”
New York, she said, is a good example of a city that is connecting its waterfronts, elevating the needs of pedestrians and cyclists and “taming the cars.”
“Not only has New York made some really fabulous parks, many with the help of conservancies and philanthropy, but it’s also made some fabulous trails connecting its parks and its waterfront to the city.”
Coletta said that whatever Jacksonville decides to do with its waterfront, it has to be something that people can’t get anywhere else and it has to be inclusive across all income levels.
“I contend public space may be our last best hope for getting people across income levels to congregate together,” she said. “Do not ever apologize for building great public space. It is essential infrastructure for creating opportunity, community and, I would argue, democracy.”